The Avatar: Keeper of Things and All That
by timelucked
Summary: No one was sure how exactly they got onto that topic, but where the tales of heroisms passed and several hilarious anecdotes later, here they were. "Do you know what they do to Fire Lords when they die?"


No one was sure how exactly they got onto that topic, but where the tales of heroisms passed and several hilarious anecdotes later, here they were.

"So, do you guys know what they do to Fire Lords when they die?" the eldest member in the group quirked his one brow at each of the others in turn. They stared back blankly at him, inviting albeit empty. He was still unsure how they got to the topic of death. Maybe it was a segued tangent from their talk on the future and what it could possibly hold. He wasn't sure how, but he wasn't about to stop with that cliffhanger. "They burn our corpse on a pyre, gather the ash, and cast it across the land from a dragons back. Or," he winced slightly as he corrected himself. "That's how they used to do it. But there are no more dragons. Except for Ran and Shaw, but none of us were really supposed to know that. So loved ones just simply toss the ash out across some fields."

Katara threatened to open her big mouth with some sarcastic comment, but he shushed her as he continued, in a voice rather ominous.

"Its Fire Nation lore that when ones land is fertilized by the spirit of the Fire Lord, the bounty will be plentiful. Because even in death, the Fire Lord has his duty and obligation to his nation."

"Yeah, that, or,"

_Here we go._ Zuko hotly allowed breath to escape his lips as his eyes circled inside their sockets.

"The _earth_ rejoiced that the Fire Lords were gone and Tui – or La, I'm still not really sure who does what—"

"—they're equal, Katara! They push and pull each other into submission and dominance at the same time as the other!" Aang cut in, only to be rolled over by her continued rant.

"—but they probably _showed_ how much they loved not having the Fire Lords around by showering your country with … you know, a shower."

Upon noticing Zuko's heaving shoulders, shaking as he contained his rage at her ignorance, and his menacing snarl, Sokka lightly pushed his sisters tanned shoulder. The look he gave her was even more pointed, brows raised warningly. He knew how she could get. And he also knew that the ex-crowned prince was not one to be toyed with. He was just as temperamental as his magic-y, whoosh-y, bend-y stuff.

"Your theory is flawed at two major points, _Katara_," he hissed her name as if she had slapped him. Which in her own right, she had. "One, this act was done way before my father's time, and even my father's father's time. The only 'bad' rulers in my nation were Sozin and those after him."

No one dared bring up the point that as soon as they defeated Ozai, Zuko was most likely the one to become Fire Lord next. Unless the retired general-slash-uncle to said boy was going to step up, and from the brief encounters the team had had, they found it safe to assume it would be Zuko stepping up to the proverbial plate.

He kept on steaming by with his tyraid. "And two… well, I had a two. But now I forgot it. Ah, yes, _two_. You know nothing about my nation so just – _stop_."

Wind whistled by. Toph coughed into her fist, bringing it up from where she picked at her blackened and overgrown nails. Fumbling stutters escaped the Avatar's lips as he tried to break the thick tension. Sokka inwardly chuckled, knowing full well what his friend was attempting. _The only way that's gonna happen, is if you use one of Zuko's dao swords and chop through it, buddy, _he mentally thought towards his friend.

"Uh, uh…uh!" Was it just Sokka, or did that last, 'uh' seem _pretty_ urgent. "Oh! The Air nomads do something similar! Our bodies get burned, too."

He grinned and nodded his head wildly, happy to have cut through the terse silence and to find a connection to his new ally. The smile was reciprocated with a shadow of his own.

Sokka blanched, arms flailing about as he tried to wrap his mind around the cruel irony of it all.

"Your bodies get burned? By _fire_?"

Out the corner of his large, gray catowl eyes, Aang saw Katara stiffen slightly and, try as she might, her disgust and revulsion still showed clearly on her face. The fire from the team-made pit glinted off her skin in a terrible, orange hue.

"Well…yeah," his voice became sheepish as he shrunk in on himself. But he was here to defend a new friend, and spirits be damned he was going to do it! "The monks believed that we came from dust. We were taught modesty and virtue, and nothing is more modest than saying you're nothin' but soot. So, the teachings go 'From dust we came, to dust we go.'" He smiled as he straightened himself up, like a cuddly pandaviper.

Katara stared in awe at the young air bender. She often forgot just how young he was, either when bent volcanoes in on themselves or when he spoke with the philosophy of a man five, or even six, times his age. She sniggered as she thought of a man, technically, 560 years old. Toph simply yawned and curled up, head brushing Zuko's thigh. Breaking his glaring contact with the antithesis to his element, he gazed down at the young girl softly, patting her head gently he heard her sigh, though she swatted his hand away sleepily. The moon was at its peak, at mid-sky, meaning it was very late.

The volunteered member's voice had gone quite, deferential. "I guess you and I aren't so different after all,"

Aang turned his face up smugly, cheeky grin slapped right to his pale features, alighting his eyes with a silver lining. "I told you so~" his voice lilted in the same sing-songy drawl he always carted about with him. Despite the age, and ages instilled within him, he was still a child – through and through.

The hardened muscles of Zuko's abdominals jerked with his sharp exhale, what he considered a laugh to be shared betwixt them. "You're one quirky kid, you know that?"

Katara's jaw dropped along with her brothers. Toph snorted acceptingly and Aang cheered encouragingly of how the angsty teenager was letting loose, bit by bit. Enough to joke with the boy he once sought to capture in any case.

"And you're one of my best friends, Zuko." This time, his smile lighted his face like a candle in a dark room. And the symbolism wasn't lost on the Fire Prince.

Sokka's jaw plunged to the floor, arms slack and shoulders slumped. It rolled back up onto its hinges with a snap as he sharply spun to gape incredulous eyes at his sister, finger loosely pointed at his shocked mug. His gestures and faces were clear.

Katara's muted murmurs of, "He's the Avatar, Sokka – everyone is his best friend." were lost on the Fire Prince as he focused his attention on the boy right in front of him. Head tilted, eyes assessed him with warily curious amber eyes, fire dancing inside them as it snapped and skipped between the two powerful benders.

"…thanks, Aang…" he was slow to respond, new feelings swirling in him – like acceptance, home, family, friendship – blocking the passages of his perpetually acute mind. It meant a lot to hear him say that, even after everything that he had put him through, them all through.

"Shut up and go…hug 'im…already…" the slurred sentence escaped tired lips as Toph yawned once more, a great show of effort it seemed.

Smirking while staring down the bridge of his nose at her, he jeered playfully at her, "Alright, champ. But if I'm going to, then so are you."

Her opaque eyes shot open. "What?" she screeched as he hefted her up by her armpits, squirming and trying to kick him all the while. He was smarter and craftier and held her at arms length. So bent on returning to her anti-social escape of snooze-catching that she even attempted earth bending at him, raising her small fists up and circling them at their joints. He deftly sidestepped a pillar with great ease and amusement, humming mockingly. "Put me _down_, Sparky, I'm warning you!"

His voice went into a high-pitched imitation, causing the master earth bender to groan and a giggle to steal away from another. Zuko's head whipped to the sound innocently meeting surprised crystalline eyes. She scowled and turned her face away, lips still twitching against her will. He hid his smile under his shadowing bangs.

"Sorry, but you got yourself into this."

"No I didn't! I got _you_ into this, why am _I_ being dragged into this?"

"Whining, whining, whining, that's all I hear from you."

"Says the guy who burned my feet," her voice went deadpan and for her comment he shook her as if she were one of Azula's dolls.

"Now she grumbles," his voice took the tone and quality of Aang's.

"SPARKY!"

"Fine, fine," he quit his big brotherly façade, dropping her before his friend. "Here you go."

The Avatar smiled brilliantly at her and brightly at him. "You act like she's your sister."

Zuko's scarred cheek cringed. "Yeeee-ah… no. If she was my sister, I'd probably try to kill her."

He felt a pulsating throb in his arm and heard, "You almost did. Now shut up and stop ruining Aang's moment." The words were harsh but the look he saw in Katara's face was kinder than any other look she had given him.

"Yeah, Zuko, time for a group hug – look, Aang agrees with me," Sokka gave a thumbs up signal and wink, head gesturing to his young pal.

He was right; Aang stuck his grabby hands before his chest, expression expectant and eager. Smiling, he watched as everyone circled around the last hope for this world, pulling him close as their eyes closed in contentment. In uniform unison, blue, milky, and gray eyes closed and laughed goodheartedly.

"Oh." He felt a tugging on his vest and gold sash as russet hands yanked him towards the group. A smile fluttered to his lips as he enveloped a part of each member.

Aang laughed jovially. "Haha, yup, that's me! The Avatar: keeper of things and all that." He commented on resolving the superficial issues within the group.

Sokka socked his taut bicep, Zuko nuggied the boy affectionately, and Toph and Katara pinched each cheek on the cheeky kid.

"I thought you were the keeper of 'peace and serenity, balance and harmony'?"

"That too," he chuckled and, puffing his cheek out, a gust of air spewed from his mouth like a torrential volcano of breath. He floated down a few feet away, hand on his hip, same hand propping his chin up on his fist. "I'm also the keeper to the champion title of tag."

Each face brightened with the prospect of a challenge and Aang smirked knowingly. He would use the tactic he always had, shoot himself up from an arrogantly seated position on the floor then up into the shadows of the night.

Zuko really hated games. He still didn't know how he got dragged into the things he did with them, but that night was one of the best he had ever had. It also helped he fire-whipped Katara into a shrieking and chasing fit. The consequence of having her futile fists pummel into him was pleasing. Her backlash and superwave was not. But steaming his clothes and seeing her slackening reaction, quickly hidden as she whirled to play with the other – shoving her brother into a fountain – was worth it.

An unrewarding shove face first into the ground nearly knocked his nose out of its righted place. Aang whistled and skipped away. This time Zuko knew why he was here. He knew what topics to say, he knew what joke to make, and he knew why he was brought here. And it felt good to know that after _all_ this time.


End file.
